The Earth Chronicles

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

“Thank you for your time, Pilot Lingiari,” said the chief investigator, extending his hand.

Carl sat up from his slouched position and reached to take the man’s hand. He was in front of a team of five investigators, and he’d been there so long he’d lost track of time. “That’s it? I can go?” His throat ached from answering the men and women’s questions, and his head buzzed from going over the events on K. 67092d again and again.

The questioning had felt more like an interrogation than an investigation. He was glad he’d told them nothing but the truth according to his memory of the events. He would never have been able to keep track of Haggardy’s lies if he’d decided to go along with the man’s story.

“Yes, we have no more questions for you at the moment,” said the investigator. He glanced at his colleagues on his right and left as he spoke. All of them shook their heads.

“Great.” Carl stood and stretched.

“But, until the investigation is concluded, you are not to leave Earth,” added the man.

“What?” Carl stopped mid-stretch and deflated a little. “How long’s it gonna take? I mean, I’m a deep space pilot. I’ve gotta leave Earth to work.”

“We understand. The investigation shouldn’t take too long. I’m afraid I can’t promise you anything more than that, however. We’ll notify you when we reach our final conclusions.”

“Great,” Carl repeated with less enthusiasm. He took his jacket from the back of his chair and made his way out of the Global Security Headquarters. It was nighttime. He’d been answering questions the whole day. He checked the time and realized that he might make the last shuttle to Sydney if he hurried.

He requested an autocab on his interface and waited for it to arrive. It would be a close thing to make the shuttle flight, but after a day of talking about Shadows, fighting, and death, he had a strong urge to set eyes on his aging parents and his childhood home again.

The shuttle would be worth the extra expense to feel the hot Australian sun on his back again the next day. Outback New South Wales was worlds better than muggy, humid, polluted London.

He opened his bag. “We’re going home, mate,” he said to Flux, who was inside, eating a cracker.

“About bloody time,” replied the creature. “I’ve been in this kratting bag nearly two days. I need to stretch my wings.”

Flux wasn’t the friendliest of aliens at the best of times, but he’d only had an hour or so of flying outside Harrington’s window that morning, and the creature’s grumpiness was only to be expected.

Carl jumped into the autocab that arrived, and he jumped out of it again at the spaceport. He ran through the terminal to make the shuttle, and soon he was strapped in and waiting to take off.

Night changed to dawn as he flew to Australia. The sun was coming up over Bondi when the shuttle touched down. Carl had managed a short nap on the flight, but his eyes were heavy and gritty by the time he hired a car at Sydney spaceport. He told the car the address of his parents’ farm beyond the Blue Mountains and settled down to catch up on his sleep while it took him there.

As his eyes closed, he imagined his parents’ surprise when he turned up months earlier than expected. His mum wouldn’t have cooked his favorite meal, as had become a homecoming tradition since he’d first left home to go to flight school, but it didn’t matter. He was smiling as he fell asleep imagining the happiness on his mum’s face when she set eyes on him.

The pinging of the rental car door opening awakened him. On the adjoining seat, Flux had unzipped Carl’s bag from the inside. His brown button nose poked out first, followed by black, beady eyes and large, tufted ears.

“Wake up, i***t, we’re home,” he said as he climbed out of the bag and spread his wings. “Ah, that’s better,” he said before jumping over Carl and through the open door. “I’m off to catch some breakfast. Say hi to your folks. I’ll see you guys later.” The alien flew off, gaining height to fly over the eucalypts that edged Carl’s parents’ farm.

Carl grabbed his bag and closed the car door. He would leave it in the road. The farm was in an area that saw little more than local traffic. He went toward the farmhouse, which stood at the end of a driveway. Though it was still early morning, he was a little surprised his folks hadn’t come out to greet him. His mum and dad were usually up with the sun. Maybe they were already out in the yard or working in the fields.

He went up the driveway and around the back of the house. Only delivery drones used the front door. No one was in the yard. He tried the back door, but it was locked. Carl’s hand dropped in surprise. The back door was never locked. He stepped backward and peered at the upper floors of the house. His parents’ bedroom window glass was clear, which meant they were up.

Returning to the house, he looked in the downstairs windows, cupping his hands around his eyes. All the downstairs rooms at the back were empty, and in the kitchen there were no signs that breakfast had taken place. He knocked on the back door. No one answered. After three or four more tries, he went out into the yard again and shouted up, “Mum, Dad.”

He ran around the house to the front, but that door was locked too.

Carl decided to investigate the barn. If his parents were out working in the fields, equipment would be missing. But when he checked, everything seemed to be in its place. He wondered if they could have gone for a walk around the farm. It was possible, but why would they lock the door?

A terrible fear rose in Carl. He tried to quell it with reasoning. He tried to tell himself that his parents might have gone away to visit a relative, or they might have had another reason for leaving their cherished farm, but he couldn’t convince himself that something wasn’t very wrong.

He needed some help. Carl tilted back his head, put his hands to his mouth and shouted, “Cooee.” The sound echoed back from the farmhouse and surrounding trees. A few minutes later, Flux appeared over a wattle tree and glided down to land on Carl’s head before hopping onto his shoulder.

“Something’s up, right?” Flux asked.

“You noticed?” said Carl. “I was gonna ask if you’d seen Mum or Dad about the place.”

“Nope. Haven’t seen them anywhere, and what’s more, look around you, mate.”

Carl went up a low rise, and gazed at the fields, the yard, and the house. His alien friend was right. The farm looked as though no one had been there in weeks. In his concern over his missing parents, he hadn’t noticed that the house windows were grimy with red dust—something his dad would never have tolerated—and that the yard was thick with dead leaves and other plant debris that had blown in from the fields.

And the fields themselves—where was that year’s crop? The ground should have been filled with green shoots at that time of year, but it looked as though it hadn’t even been sown. A hard crust covered the land. The soil hadn’t been tilled since the previous season’s harvest. How long had his parents been away?

Carl’s legs felt weak. He sat down right there in the cobbled yard, fear gripping him. He took his interface from his bag, and with trembling fingers he called the nearest neighbor. Mrs. Jesson had been friends with his parents all his life. If anyone would know where they were it would be her.

The neighbor answered, and her voice became full of sorrow and concern the second she recognized Carl’s voice.

“Oh, love, I’m sorry. I thought you might know where they are.”

“What? Have they gone missing? How long has it been?”

“Come over, Carl, and I’ll tell you everything I know. It isn’t right to talk about it over the phone.”

“All right. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Carl jogged the kilometer over the fields to the neighbor’s house, dreading to hear what she had to say. She was standing at her open door, waiting for him.

“What’s going on, Mrs. Jesson?” asked Carl as he wiped his feet on her doormat. Flux was perched on his shoulder. As Carl went inside, the creature took off and circled the room twice before settling on the top of a display cabinet holding the woman’s prized blue heeler ornaments collection. Flux was never normally allowed inside Mrs. Jesson’s home as he’d never quite embraced house training, but she must have felt the occasion warranted an exception.

“Carl, dear, please sit down. You really don’t have any idea where Bernard and Joyce have gone? We searched high and low for them. We told the police, and we locked the place up so nothing got stolen. It was lucky they gave up raising horses. It looked like they’d been gone two or three days before anyone realized.” Reading Carl’s expression, the older woman began to weep. “I’m so sorry. You were our last hope.”

“Mrs. Jesson, what’s happened to my parents?”

“Dearie, I don’t know how to tell you this. Your mum and dad have been missing for three months. The police sent a message to your company to pass on. Didn’t it get through?”